August 13: we hosted a
live performance from the Kishwaukee Ramblers. They
performed songs from the pre-Civil War era all the way up to
mid-1900s.
We thank Neal, Amy and Gary for sharing their music with us.

Video of
the Kishwaukee Ramblers playing at the Mother Rudd Home
Museum, August 13, 2011.

Ty Rohrer, Museum Supervisor for the Waukegan Park
District, had a delightful presentation about Waukegan
native son Jack Benny. We saw slides of his life &
times, and a video episode of the Jack Benny Program.

Here is a Jack Benny Program video clip - listen for the
mention of Waukegan High School (and some ad libs) near the
end.

On August 14th & 15th
we had our Gurnee Days open houses. We feel we had a nice
turnout with a total of about 100 adults, plus children. Our
workers were, Ann Kekatos, Ron & Trish Wendt, Joe
Lodesky, Michael Weiland, Al Westerman, Robert Haugh and Tom
& Clarissa Mellen. We also had a few ladies
demonstrating handquilting. The new displays for the Gurnee
days open house, were from Bernelda Clem's "My Mother’s
Trunk".

They were donated by Carol Clem. We are planning to keep
them on display for quite awhile.

Re-enactor
Daniel J. Johnson
portrayed Thomas Morris Chester. In 1864-65, Chester was
Special Correspondent to the Philadelphia Press, travelling
with the "U.S. Colored Troops, Army of the James." He was
the only African American covering the Civil War for a major
daily newspaper.

Every January, rather than
a formal speaker, we traditionally host "Treasures from
the Attic".
Members are encouraged to bring historical artifacts and
explain a little about their significance.

We will also show items
from the WTHS collection.

Right:
a small handmade pin, a Christmas gift for Betty Hickey in the
1940s. She also shared a copy of her husband's hand-written
soldier's diary from World War II, describing various
missions in Europe. He later became a prisoner of war, held
in Germany.

Left: Tom Mellen shows off a
recently accessioned steamer trunk, last owned by Bernelda
"Bill" Clem. It originally belonged to her mother,
Margaretta Bayes Moyer.

Right:
part of a quilt brought in by Jenet Bakke. This is in a "Mother's Flower
Garden" pattern. The material is from feed sacks, flour
sacks and sugar sacks.

Left: Ruth Brunke shows a
"penny-pieced" felt rug, made by her mother.

Right:
This "Patsy" doll, dating from about 1928, was brought in by
Sandra Michaels.
Sandra also had a 19th Century Swedish-language prayer book,
and an antique 5th Grade Reader.

Left: Clarissa Mellen shows a
sewing box that was her grandmother's. Her grandparents were
married in 1889. She also showed framed pictures of her
grandparents.

Some other treasures (not pictured):

Joe Lodesky
brought in samples of barbed wire from his Warren
Township farm, including a 19th Century fragment, and a
modern sample for comparison.

Tom Groth
brought in a small metal ball, apparently found by
squirrels on his property and placed in an acorn stash;
it may be a musket ball.

Marge Miller
brought a glass "salt dish", which pre-dates the use of
salt shakers.

Christine showed us the history of the Curt Teich postcard
company, and showed us how its archives reflect the lives
and times in years past. Postcards in the archive illustrate
women in military service, on the home front, and in
organizations like the U.S.O.

About a third of all U.S. Navy recruits in World War II
trained at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Lake County,
including many women.

Earl Beese of
the Lakes Regional Historical Society presented on World War
II: a personal account of combat conditions, through the
eyes of a young infantry soldier with the 75th Infantry
Division in Europe.

Earl was one of the youngest American soldiers in the
European theatre. He shared stories and artifacts of his
experience, and some more-recent photos from a family visit
to where he fought in Belgium and Germany.

Diana Dretske, Historical Society member, and
collections coordinator at the Lake County Discovery Museum,
talked about "Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad in
Lake County". A few vestiges of the UGRR still exist in Lake
County: a cabin in Deerfield, "Kuhn's Rock" (a landmark in
what is now Old Mill Creek), and of course the Mother Rudd
Home.

Max and Donna Daniels
gave us a stirring portrayal of Abraham and Mary
Todd Lincoln.

Max & Donna have been portraying President &
Mrs. Abraham Lincoln professionally since 1988. They
were featured on C-SPAN during the Lincoln-Douglas
Debate series in 1994, and on the "Someone You Should
Know" program on ABC/channel 7 in Chicago.
Since 1995, they have performed on numerous occasions at
the Lincoln Home Visitor Center
in Springfield, IL, and in 2001 they were invited to
perform at the Discovery Theatre for Children at the Smithsonian Institution. They have performed
for national encampments of the Sons
of Union Veterans, and for the Midwest
Civil War Round Table conference. Max has also appeared
in several commercials, including a video for the
Admissions Department of Lincoln College,
Lincoln, IL.

You may remember Mrs. Welcome from our memorable March, 2005 meeting. She holds a Bachelors
of Arts Degree in Acting and Directing from Northern
Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. She currently
performs Black Women in History. These performances
feature Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, for schools,
libraries, church groups and other various
organizations. Ms.Welcome will soon be seen as Leotha
Henkshaw, a black "Rosie the Riveter" who broke the
color line in industry in Chicago during World War Two.
Mrs. Welcome is a resident of northern Illinois, where
she resides with her husband and two children.

Member
and historian Diana Dretske present some highlights from
the new Second Edition of her book,"Lake County, Illinois: An
Illustrated History".

We saw glimpes of
scenes from the earliest history of the county, from the
Ice Age to Marquette & Jolliet's exploration of what
is now Illinois Beach State Park - in search of a
passage from the Great Lakes to Asia.

Diana showed pictures of native American "trail trees" -
a few of which are known to survive still today in Lake
County.

We heard stories of colorful characters like Col. Elmer
Ellsworth, who led a crack French-style military drill
team, the Zouave Cadets. Col. Ellsworth became the first Union
officer to die in the Civil War.

Earl Beese of the
Lakes Region Historical Society (Antioch) gave an
informative presentation on Native American "Projectile
Points" -- often referred to as "arrowheads." Earl
points out that the bow and arrow was a relatively
recent innovation (c. A.D. 400) with respect to 12,000
years of human habitation in northeast Illinois; earlier
points would have been used on spears, knives or other
tools.
Earl provided samples of points to each member and guest
in attendance, and a set of guidelines for
classification. We each then had the opportunity to
identify and classify each sample.

The
"Tuesday
morning work group" starts off 2007, working on
accessioning and cleaning. Left to right: Joyce Buehler, Ruth Brunke, Jill
Martin, Tom Mellen, Marge Miller and Don Haugh.

The Historic Alliance of Lake and McHenry Counties,
representatives of the museums and historic houses in
both counties, met April 25, 2006, at the Mother Rudd
House. Standing is Mike Mills of Highland Park.

Quilters meet at the Mother Rudd House nearly every
Friday afternoon. Pinning a quilt top in
preparation for quilting it are (left to right) Debbie
Cimaglia, Marge Redding and Linda Warren.

Janice showed us
buildings and farmsteads maintained by wealthy
landowners in and near Lake Forest. Many were built by
leading architects including David Adler. We learned
of the pioneering advances these farms made in hygiene
and breeding, which became state-of-the art practices
in modern agriculture. Remnants of some of these farms
still exist, and some are being restored.

May 3, 2005 - General Meeting

SUE CRIBB (with special guest, husband Jay
Cribb) introduced us to Lake Villa history - "When Lake
Villa was spelled L-E-H-M-A-N-N." Sue shared with us
information about the Lehmann family, founders of The Fair
department store, and their various summer "cottages" in
and arouund Lake Villa. Thanks Sue and Jay for the
history and stories.

March
1, 2005 - General Meeting

Our thanks to PAMELA WELCOME, featured speaker
at our March 1st, 2005 general meeting. Pamela gave a
captivating performance in speech and song, in the persona
of Harriet Tubman, illustrating Tubman's life and her work
on the Underground Railroad.

We were delighted to have approximately 50 members and
guests in attendance to enjoy the evening.